With two-thirds of its customers in the U.S., Sterling Pharma Solutions figured it should have a facility there. So the U.K.-based CDMO bought one.
The small molecule API maker said this week it has acquired the Cary, North Carolina, location of CiVentiChem, retaining 23 employees and giving Sterling its first U.S. facility and the ability to provide chemical development more easily to its clients.
“The North American market now makes up 70% of our customer portfolio which was one of the major reasons behind the decision to look for a facility in the U.S.,” Sterling CEO Kevin Cook said in a statement.
The facility in Cary has development laboratories and kilo scale cGMP suites for complex chemistry work. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the two companies said CiVentiChem will continue to operate out of its own facility in India as a separate entity from Sterling.
The acquisition by the Newcastle upon Tyne-based Sterling comes just weeks after a management buyout involving European private investment firm GHO Capital. GHO noted Sterling’s expertise in complex chemistry when announcing the deal.
Sterling was itself created in 2016 through a buyout by managers of a nearly 50-year-old facility in Dudley, U.K., from Strides Shasun. Cook has worked at the site for more than 20 years.
